Until now, the Huskies have only heard stories about the fun that happens on weekends in the Big Apple. They begin their quest for Big East glory tonight against Syracuse, which defeated Seton Hall 89-74 Wednesday night.

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The Huskies have lost four straight games, going one-and-done in each of the last three seasons, in the league's postseason tourney. They are anxious to break that hex.

"Without a doubt. I've never got out of the first round, or at least past the first game we've played there," UConn guard
A.J. Price
said.

"We definitely want to make it to that Friday, Saturday night event and feel that atmosphere. You see how exciting it is and how live it is. We want to get to that point."

UConn (27-3), having perhaps locked up a No. 1 seed in the
NCAA
tournament, is seeking to do more than just build its résumé in New York. Some of the veteran players feel they've missed out on what has long been the birthright of a Husky.

"I'm excited to get to Friday night," forward
Jeff Adrien
said. "We can't look past, probably Syracuse, but we really want to get out there and play on Friday. We've heard how big it is."

Three of UConn's four consecutive losses have come to Syracuse -- West Virginia and
Joe Alexander
shot the Huskies out of last season's event -- though there hasn't exactly been a pattern to the defeats.

"We got upset when (Gerry) McNamara upset everybody," said Calhoun, mentioning the Huskies' 2006 defeat first. "We didn't have a very good team the next year. And last year, I have nothing."

The expanded field of this year's event and the depth of the Big East overall have made the conference's single-elimination showdown even tougher than normal. There will seemingly be no easy games, even for the top seeds that haven't been part of the action until today.

"Now it's entirely different," Calhoun said. "Most likely we're going to play a ranked team in our first game. The quarterfinals are going to have ranked teams. Ranked teams are going home on Thursday."

The Huskies certainly don't want to head home early again. They also don't want to let their loss to Pittsburgh in the regular-season finale to linger -- except perhaps to serve as motivation for a potential third matchup Friday night.

"We need to go into the Big East tournament with energy, feeling good about ourselves, and understanding that we are still one of the premier teams in the country," Price said. "And we need to go out there and prove it."

UConn may also have to prove it has the depth to survive a run through this tournament or one in the near future. The Huskies'

"I think it's about confidence with Craig," Price said. "He needs to be confident in himself and understand that he's still one of the guys on this team, one of the leaders, one of the veterans. And we're going to need him. ... Even if he's in a tough place right now, it's our job to help him through that."